Monday, November 1, 2010

It was my mother-in-law's birthday so I made boeuf a la nicoise: braised beef stew with red wine, tomato, olives and buttered noodles from Sunday Suppers at Lucques, written by Suzanne Goin. I love this cookbook. It is constructed as complete suppers that will feed six people family style. I have cooked entire suppers from the book as well as individual dishes. The cookbook has some inaccurate and incomplete instructions but the final product (after tussling with the inaccuracies) are phenomenal. The details in the cookbook are also very granular which I realize is in direct contrast with my statement about the inaccuracies but that's the way it is. For example, "add the crushed tomatoes and cook 2 minutes, stirring constantly to coat the vegetables." A lot of authors would just say to add the crushed tomatoes and stir for 2 minutes without explaining why. Or they might say add the crushed tomatoes and stir for a few minutes. The cookbook is also broken down into seasonal meals which makes finding fresh ingredients and serving 'seasonally appropriate fare' (who wants beef stew in July?) much easier. I give this recipe two positively beaming thumbs up.

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Thank you for visiting Salt on the Table; my name is Sonia and I am the author. This blog chronicles the portion of my life that is devoted to food and what inspires me in the kitchen. The recipes I create, cookbooks I read, restaurants I visit, food I encounter on my travels, as well as some occasional musings on food.